Arizona Trail Association Members Rendezvous Mormon Lake Lodge, Friday, Sept. 24-Sunday, Sept. 26, 2010

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1 Volume 17, No. 3 - Summer 2010 News and information on the State s border-to-border Arizona Trail project Arizona Trail Association Members Rendezvous Mormon Lake Lodge, Friday, Sept. 24-Sunday, Sept. 26, 2010 See old trail friends, meet new ones, share your adventures Celebrate with us on the National Public Lands Day work event Hike, bike and ride our trail Explore in and around Mormon Lake Registration (also online at $50 for non-member individuals (includes 1 year membership), $20 for members; $60 for non-member couples and families (includes 1 year membership) or $30 for members. Add $10 for registration at the event. LAST DAY TO REGISTER IS SEPT. 10. Accommodations (tell them you re with the Arizona Trail Association): Happy Hour at ATA Members Rendezvous. Members catch up with old friends and make some new ones while listening to the western tunes of Gail Starr. Cabins/Rooms, 10% off with ATA member discount RV Park with hook-ups, 10% off with ATA member discount Dry Tent and RV camping, free with ATA membership (pay showers available) Horse Pens, free RESERVE EARLY! All held rooms released on Aug. 31! Reservations: Rendezvous Chili Feast! Friday night pot luck will showcase spicy and not-so-spicy chilis! Care to bring some? Or maybe a salad, or bread, if chili isn t your bag? Let us know: ata@aztrail.org. What s Inside: REI Awards Grant for Gateway Project New Blog Tracks Trail Finishers Arizona 300 Race Results Why Website Ads & Affiliates?

2 The Arizona Trail Our Vision a continuous, nonmotorized trail traversing the State - nearly 817 miles from Mexico to Utah, linking deserts, mountains, canyons, communities and people ATA Board of Directors Emily Nottingham, President Fred Gaudet, VP of Trail Operations Kent Taylor, Treasurer Lyn White, Secretary Board Members at Large Steve Anderson Lisa Atkins Bob Bohannan Laddie Cox Jan Hancock Gary Hohner Connie Lane Zach MacDonald Tasha Nelson Anna Pfender John Rendall Martin Shultz Eric Smith Russell Smoldon Bernie Stalmann Wendy Erica Werden Doug Whitneybell Terry Woolston OTHER PERSONNEL Dave Hicks, Executive Director Debbie Thorman, Membership & Customer Services David Babcock, Web Master Terri Gay, Newsletter Editor Phyllis Ralley Maps & Newsletter Dave Burkett Tool Trailer Coordinator ATA News Summer The Arizona Trail - One Trail for Many Dave Hicks Occasionally someone grumbles about having to share the trail with those darn. My usual response is something like if it weren t for those darn, there wouldn t be an Arizona Trail. From its first days, the Arizona Trail was intended for different types of users. Today the trail is frequented by a variety of users with the common thread of enjoyment and love for Arizona s outdoors. The Arizona Trail is a refreshing model of different interests working together. They include hikers, equestrians, mountain bicyclists, trail runners, cross country skiers, birders, photographers, naturalists, etc. They are all key reasons for our new National Scenic Trail s success. The many-user theme seems like the obvious path to take. But not all longdistance trails are as open to different users- some allow only hikers. After Dale Shewalter s trek across Arizona in 1985, his first official presentation about an across Arizona path was to the Arizona Hiking and Equestrian Trails Committee (now known as Arizona State Committee on Trails). At the conclusion, they sat in awed silence as the committee contemplated a multi-user trail across Arizona. Margaret Bohannan, the chair of the committee and an equestrian, broke the silence by simply saying to Dale: Go for it. And he did. Along the way Dale picked up many allies.trail runners, mountain bikers, and others. As a result, that diverse alliance has contributed significantly to the AZT s amazing progress. I would like to recognize those user groups who are also ATA trail stewards: Huachuca Hiking Club; The Southern Arizona Mountain Biking Association: Southeastern Arizona Horseman s Association; Sonoran Desert Mountain Bicyclists; Tucson Saddle Club; Southern Arizona Hiking Club; Southwest Conservation Corps; County Line Riders; SaddleBrooke Hiking Club; Arizona State Land Dept Hikers; Mountain Bike Association of Arizona; East Valley Back Country Horsemen; Superstition Horsemen s Association; Back Country Horsemen of Central Arizona; Arizona Wilderness Coalition; Arrowhead Wildlife Society; Camp Geronimo - Boy Scouts of America; Sierra Club - Palo Verde Group; Aravaipa Running; Camp Colley; Volunteers of Outdoor Arizona; Arizona Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects: Coconino Rural Environment Corps; Northern Arizona Trail Runners Association; FlagstaffBiking.org; and the Arizona State Horsemen Association. Thanks to you, the Arizona Trail is one trail for many. Please let us know if you wish to receive your newsletter online. Save a tree and see your newsletter in full color. You can even print it in color on your home computer printer! Just ata@aztrail.org with your name and online newsletter as your subject line or call us at

3 REI Awards ATA Grant to Continue Work on Gateway Project REI has awarded the Arizona Trail Association $10,000 to continue developing the awareness and involvement of smaller gateway communities along the trail s route into These key communities will help host informational events, trail work days and hikes and rides. Many thanks to REI for its generosity. Arizona Trail Association to Host National Public Lands Day Event Saturday, September 25 at Mormon Lake The Arizona Trail Association will host a half-day work event near the village of Mormon Lake south of Flagstaff on Saturday, September 25, The event celebrates a commitment to serving and enjoying public lands on National Public Lands Day. Help improve and maintain area trails including the Arizona Trail. Volunteers will meet at the Mormon Lake Lodge s Western Town Hall at 8 a.m. then leave for the work site. Be sure to register for the event at ata@aztrail.org. Visit aztrail.org for more information. NPLD aims to inspire a new generation of volunteers committed to service on public lands. The event also encourages volunteers to explore and enjoy Arizona s natural wonders through outdoor recreation. After working hard, volunteers can take a hike, a trail run, or a ride and enjoy the company of others who love to recreate everywhere in the great outdoors. I finished the Arizona Trail! Blog Debuts Finished the trail? Post your feat at and help document the scores of users who ve made it from border to border. ATA News Summer

4 Arizona Trail 300 Bike Ride: OMG Fast and Furious Hearty bikers ready for the snowy start of the AZT300 in April at Parker Canyon Lake trailhead. Photo: Mary Metcalf-Collier A rare April storm covered the Canelo Hills just in time for the start of the 5th annual AZT 300 ride. Over twenty cyclists lined up at the Parker Canyon Lake trailhead to ride 300 miles to the town of Superior. Jefe Branham from Gunnison, Colorado, set a new course record at 2 days, 9 hours and 2 minutes. Not to be outdone, Kurt Refsnider, also from Colorado, started a week later (missing the snow storm) and rode the entire Arizona Trail, breaking Scott Morris previous seven-day record by almost two hours. He also set a new AZT 300 record in the process, riding that portion twenty minutes faster than Branham. --Scott Morris Ed. Note The AZT 300 is a bikepacking event in which the riders are totally self-supported as they ride in the backcountry. They carry or may obtain their food and water along the way. Gear and all other necessities are carried on the bike. (The AZT 300 is a casual and independent gathering of backcountry bike enthusiasts and friends and not an officially sanctioned ATA event.) Schultz Fire Spares Close the Gap Project ATA News Summer Gary Hohner tells us, We expect to hold the August Close the Gap event as scheduled. Plans are well underway. The Schultz fire had no impact on the Peaks segment of the AZT where we will be working. Fire damage to the AZT was all east of Schultz Pass. The equestrian bypass around Flagstaff is closed indefinitely between Highway 89 and Schultz Pass due to the Schultz fire. For up-to-date information visit Read the latest updates and see the Calendar for all upcoming work events and special events on the Arizona National Scenic Trail

5 The Arizona Trail Legacy Partners ARIZONA APS Arizona Community Foundation Arizona Horse Lovers Foundation Arizona State Parks ASARCO BLM Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Mormon Lake Lodge National Bank of Arizona REI Resolution Copper Rosemont Copper SRP Windwalker Expeditions ARIZONA TRAIL TRAIL NATIONAL SCENIC TRAIL Arizona Highways June 2010 issue featured the Arizona Trail in a spectacular article by Lisa Schnebly Heidinger. Find a copy! The Word Gets Around John Officer of Marana finished the Arizona Trail this year in 41 days of hiking and became the subject of an interview by The Explorer newspaper in Tucson. College Times of Phoenix spread the word about the work volunteers do on our trail, AZT pedalers Tim McCabe and Scott Morris responded to a Q&A on bikepacking in Arizona for Dirt Rag Magazine, Issue #150. Finally, Tucson author Lee Allen s (not to be confused with steward Lee Allen!) coverage of the Arizona Trail in his article Pathway to Paradise in the September/October 2009 issue of Arizona Wildlife Views magazine earned third place honors in the magazine division of the national Outdoor Writers Association of America (OWAA) competition. For the same article, he was honored with a second place award recognizing excellence in communicating the value, enjoyment and/or instruction of outdoor recreation. You can see the article at Vote every day, the contest ends August 31! Just one click, once a day, can earn the Arizona Trail $50,000 Isn t that worth a moment of your time? Try it with your morning coffee!!! Details at or You can vote online (no texting this year) at for the Arizona Trail project (and please ask your friends to vote, too). If the ATA earns the $50,000, the funds are slated to build an 11-mile reroute in the Black Hills passage north of Oracle and help with needed trailheads and kiosks in Pima and Pinal Counties. Those Arizona Trail enhancements would be a tremendous amenity for hikers, equestrians, mountain bicyclists and all Arizona trail users. Vote every day until the end of August! Each and every vote for our Trail is appreciated. Save this date! Annual Members Rendezvous September 24-26, 2010 ATA Member Rendezvous at Mormon Lake Lodge An annual Arizona Trail tradition not to be missed! Watch the website calendar (aztrail.org/calendar.html) for details. ATA News Summer

6 ATA Business Partners Trail Guardian The Allstate Foundation (on behalf of the Max Shemwell Agency) Apollo Group, Inc. AZ Partsmaster Best Western Pony Soldier Inn & Suites, Flagstaff Dr. Bruce J. Lachot & Dr. Kent C. Loo Fleet Feet Sports of Tucson Rosemont Copper Salt River Project Wells Fargo Bank WhitneyBell Perry Inc Trail Blazer Inn Suites Hotels and Suites Intel Corp. Jorden, Bischoff & Hiser, PLC Saddlebrooke Hiking Club Saguaro Horsemen Association Sonoran Desert Mountain Bicyclists Tucson Saddle Club Trail Supporter ArizonaHikers.com Aspen Sports Body Stabilization Training, Inc. Coconino Rural Environment Corps Endurance Rehabilitation Epic Rides Hancock Resources LLC Harris Environmental Group, Inc. Hatch Insurance Agency Pima Trails Association Pink Jeep Tours Reevis Mountain School Rick Surina - State Farm Ins. Agency Sunnyside Medicenter, PC Team Rhino Bike Club Ads, Affiliates and the Arizona Trail and why you should care They can mean dollars for the Arizona Trail. They quietly wait at the bottom or in the sidebar of the ATA website pages for a site visitor to click them. Off the visitor goes to the advertised site. Advertisers pay Google for each click they get which tells the advertiser someone has visited their page. Google shares the proceeds with the originating site for allowing the ads some real estate on their pages. The Affiliate links are similar but visitors must make a purchase from the Affiliate listed on the ATA site. In return, they pay ATA a percentage of the sales generated from these links. All of these companies have worked to support the outdoors and have excellent and secure online shopping sites. Simply click on an Affiliate s logo and you will be taken to that company s website. Note: For the ATA to qualify for these funds you must always go through these links to these companies. Google Adsense on the ATA website is, according to webmaster David Babcock, working great. Any time someone clicks on one of the ads at the bottom of the home page (or on one at the bottom of the Affiliate page), we are credited with some money, says David. When that amount reaches $100, they send us a check. I monitor this fairly often, and we should be getting another check from them any day now. ATA President joins Close the Gap crew Left to right: ATA President Emily Nottingham joins Beverly Chambers, Susan Campbell, and John Campbell for a day of work in the pines. Trail Temporarily Re-routed due to Forest Thinning at Mormon Lake The AZT is closed and rerouted around a forest thinning project for a few miles south and north of Mormon Lake Village. The AZT is signed at both ends of the reroute. The temporary reroute takes the AZT through the Mormon Lake Village and back to the AZT at either end. When the forest thinning project is complete about September, 2010 the AZT will be repaired by the thinning contractor and reopened Current trail conditions can always be found at: org/passages/ at_passages.html ATA News Summer

7 Please support our Business Partners Two Arizona Trail business members offer educational opportunities to our communities. Apollo Group, Inc., parent company of the University of Phoenix, focuses on servicing the needs of the working adult. Reevis Mountain School, located in the eastern Superstition Wilderness of Arizona, helps students to learn natural healing and self-reliance skills, experience growing their own food, develop spiritual awareness, enjoy a spirit of community, and live healthfully. For education in a different format, check out Pink Jeep Tours. Native American history and culture, nature, and geology are all rolled into fun, guided adventures. John Rendall, Regional Trail Steward, sent us this photo of members of a CREC crew working on the trail in southern Arizona. A National Scenic Trail Did you know? Did you know the Navajo Trail is an old Indian and sheepherding trail? In 1871, John D. Lee traversed the Buckskin Mountain (Kaibab Plateau) by way of a wellused horsepath; he is believed to be the first Anglo to use what is now called the Navajo Trail. Mat Shannon at the Navajo Trail junction near the Arizona Trail. Photo by Dori Pederson. This is a connecting trailhead with the Kaibab Plateau Trail, dedicated in 1985 as the very first section of the Arizona Trail. You ll find this point about 14 miles north of the Jacob Lake trailhead on Highway 89A. ATA News Summer